Wedding Readings
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
When he looked into her eyes, he learned the most important part of the language that all the world spoke — the language that everyone on earth was capable of understanding in their heart. It was love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. What the boy felt at that moment was that […]
Red Leather For Tea, by Kristen E. Nelson
One I build a fire and think, what is your experience of fire? I see soot on my fingers and remember your fire on my fingers I approach with open palms; the only way to approach a wild thing When I clasp it is for an embrace The press is an honoring; as is the […]
Love Does Not Come to an End: Rreading from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians (12: 31–13: 8)
Be ambitious for the higher gifts. And I am going to show you a way that is better than any of them. If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding […]
The One by Cheryl Barclay
When the one whose hand you’re holding, Is the one who holds your heart. When the one whose eyes you gaze into, Gives your hopes and dreams their start. When the one you think of first and last Is the one who holds you tight. And the things you plan together Makes the whole world […]
Coming Home, by Mary Oliver
When we are driving in the dark, on the long road to Provincetown, when we are weary, when the buildings and the scrub pines lose their familiar look, I imagine us rising from the speeding car. I imagine us seeing everything from another place– the top of one of the pale dunes, or the deep […]
Extracts from 'Song of the Open', Road by Walt Whitman
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose. Allons! whoever you are come travel with me! Traveling with me you find what never tires. The earth never tires, The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first, Nature is […]
An Extract from A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemmingway
We would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright. We ate well and cheaply and drank well and cheaply and slept well and warm together and loved each other.
Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 12:31–13:8a
Brothers and sisters: Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and […]
Extract from Stoner, by John Williams
In his forty-third year William Stoner learned what others, much younger, had learned before him: that the person one loves at first is not the person one loves at last, and that love is not an end but a process through which one person attempts to know another… In his extreme youth Stoner had thought of love as an absolute state of […]
Epithalamium by Liz Lochead
For marriage, love and love alone’s the argument. Sweet ceremony, then hand in hand we go Taking to our changed, still dangerous days, our complement. We think we know ourselves, but all we know Is: love surprises us. It’s like when sunlight flings A sudden shaft that lights up glamorous the rain Across a Glasgow […]
At Last, by Lang Leav
Love looks pretty on you. Makes you soft, tender, proud. Makes you sit up and take notice. Gives you a home to set down your things. What a blessing it is, to have music and dancing and poetry. What a gift it is, to look at someone and say, I’m so happy to have found […]
A Marriage Can Be, Author Unknown
A poem like this, Is often bliss, ‘Forever’s and always’ The couple to praise, It’s rare do you hear, Of the love… and the fear. A marriage can be… Giving and taking, Forgiving and forsaking, Kissing and loving, Pushing and shoving, Caring and sharing, Screaming and swearing. Fighting and biting, Consoling and uniting. It about […]
